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I have been inspired after reading lots of the diaries on here to join in.

Background: OH and I are both 40. Have 4 children (12, almost 10, 4 and 10 months) OH was made redundant twice last year and recently started working as a contractor on a daily rate (4 month contract, may be extended a little) - so we now have a limited co of which we are both directors. I no longer work. We have a BTL property on which we have an interest only mtge and will clear that by selling the property (only bought for capital gain, not income, purposes) BTL property has long term tenant in. Rent covers mtge and buildings insce and repairs/ renewals with a small excess - but not much.However, it's on a fixed rate and takes care of itself.

MFW relates to our home. Bought in Oct 2005 for 277k, 130k mtge over just under 16 years (kept previous end date) Since then we have added a further 30k to the mtge for a loft conversion (needed due to the no of children!!) that cost approx 35k. We have also spent 20k+ on a bespoke fitted kitchen and building work - but financed that from savings/ income. And decorated and new carpets (previous owners ran out of money and had to sell, so place was full of stuff to do, even though it's still only 11 years old!) Some overpayments have been made, as can be seen from the overall balance.

OUr mtge is with C&G. I have a statement for balances as at 31/12/09:
(Balance as at 31/01/2009 was £124 616, so we reduced the balance by just under 20k last year)Sub Account 01
Term remaining 12 years and 7 months.
Fixed rate 4.79% - until 30/09/10
Balance £79512.27

We can repay by 10% a year without incurring penalty fees. We pay £1074.94/ month - this includes an element of overpayment, but I'm not sure how much (we didn't reduce our monthly payments when we paid off £12500 after DH was made redundant the first time)

My first step is going to be repaying Sub Account 03 We are with C&G, so I will phone them up about this. I can also afford to repay £4k to £5k from sub account 01, I think - but will leave that until after a meeting with our accountant (we are not sure yet exactly how much OH will be paid from the linited co)

I'm kind of looking for advice/ ideas, I guess... Would posting an income/ expenditure budget be an idea?

greent

ETA: We don't have any other debts. CCs are used (Tesco ones for Clubcard points for rewards) but are paid off in full.

Thanks apple & Kc. Have been doing Zumba irregularly since Nov, I think. More regularly for last couple of months. OH says he can see a difference and I weighed myself end of Feb and end of March - 8lbs difference. Also, a pair of work trousers I couldn't get on at beginning of March, I wore to work this week - ok - they still have a muffin top, but they went over my thighs, which they weren't doing a month ago!!

No exercise this week other than a long walk on Mon (had done more than 10k steps by 10am) - smallest greent has shared his bug with me, so I'm full of a chesty/ cough thing - no breath/ energy to do anything other than minimum. Will get back to it next week, hopefully

Bug has developed into full-blown cold - headachey, snot-filled, mouth breathing and heavy-limbed. Tired from lack of breath - but today is an improvement on yesterday And tomorrow I don't have to be at work until 10.45, so I can have a slower start to the day than if I was leaving the house at 8am

Quiet weekend, as OH also has the bug-turned-cold. Yesterday we basically did nothing except ensure smalls were fed and then took them to a party 30 mins away - they had a good time and I spent the party talking to the dad (my cousin's husband) about life plans, FI/RE, new kitchens, Brexit etc - very pleasant

Today we have managed a small shop to top up and to feed smalls - and do washing and ironing of uniforms etc. And not much else

Ooh - first payment for 2017 made to BTL - £1k. Looking forward to getting sub acct 3 paid off by year end

The holidays are here! All three boys broke up early on Fri and DD and bf came back here yesterday. Beautiful weather all weekend meant that all the children (DD, bf, DS1, gf & ds2 and Ds3) all had water fights in the garden on Sat/ Sun (depending upon who was here) - very soggy, but looked good fun

OH is feeling it with this contract even more now that the children are on school hols. Not sleeping, very stressed, not eating properly, being sick.... really trying to keep an eye on the end goal of the Summer off....

Easter hols always mean a good sort of the bedrooms - DS3's has been started today - lots of toys, books, magazines and some clothes have left the room so far Still lots to do - but a good start on day 1
x

DD's bf has gone back home (yesterday) - came down with a heavy cold the day before he went back, poor thing - it's never nice feeling rough when you're not in your own space. They went out one night and met up with lots of her friends also back from uni for the hols - seemed like they had fun

DS1's bday was yesterday - 17 - but he went away with cadets on Fri and isn't back until tomorrow afternoon. Slightly weird..

Lots of choc eggs here today , and a small egg hunt in the garden this morning for the smaller 2. Chillier today than the past couple of days, and there has been on and off rain (much needed) this afternoon and evening.

DS3's room still not quite finished - almost - lots of items released/ priced for releasing at NNS. Past 2 days spent sorting garage - we have a new mouse (mice?) - put bait down this time. Lots of destroyed things binned (inc my wedding veil and some other wedding keepsakes) and lots of other things (not mouse attacked) donated/ recycled/ binned/ priced up/ burned (tax records going back to 2002.....??) Some large things identified to sell via fb00k and fleebay in the next few weeks. Still have more to do, but it is looking sooo much better, and there is more room - and it's cleaner!! Too cold to do it again today and we're both feeling it having done a lot the past 2 days. Smalls were offered a trip out, but declined.

Friends came round last night and we had a good catch up. They are putting their house on the market this week, so we were having a good look at houses online - they've put an offer in on a lovely cottage (owner doesn't want to move for a few months at least, so EA was happy to put the offer forward even if their house not officially on market until Weds - if their house sells quickly our friends wouldn't need a mtge)

Had a lovely catch up with my favourite aunt today - she came over to collect a leather tub chair which we were getting rid of - she has been looking at buying one these past few weeks, so it was a win-win!

Few more fleebay sales made over the hols, and will list some more items on there either tonight or tomorrow as I have an offer on fees from them at the mo The talk of housemoving from rl friends and mfw diarists on here makes me think again of just how much 'stuff' we have here and also highlights all the little niggly jobs to do around the house - we need to plan time to do some of them!

Generally, though, I think my head is in quite a good space at the mo - too much to do and too little time, perhaps - but I'll catch up with myself at some point

Good morning with DD earlier - nipped into town, did banking for the charity & collected some more deposit envelopes and collected DS1's bday cake https://www.patisserie-valerie.co.uk/groupon - the gateau noir one - except we received a bigger one than we ordered, for some reason? - not that I'm complaining! Bargain at £15 (and also got cashback on the group0n deal)

Then we went to the charity place, picked up some bits I'm dealing with (forgot to drop some no longer needed ikea bags off after our clear out - grr), dropped a parcel off for Ziff1t, came closer to home, went to PO and posted survey items and fleebay items (using survey stamps ), dropped a bag of stuff at CS, a bag of food stuff at foodbank collection point in Tesc0 and bought milk & cereal there - then came home DS1 is very pleased with his cake (The platoon got him a cake at the weekend and sang Happy Birthday to him, which was nice - they spent 3 nights in a field and not even under canvas)

My mum took the smalls and DD out with her dogs for an hour, so I got some ironing done whilst they were out, but not much else. Now debating what to make for dinner tonight - am favouring pasta and jacket potatoes (not together - but not everyone likes each option) - relatively easy and uses up some salad and veg items at the same time

Have had to water some pots the past few days (winter pansies) - it's so dry here - an occasional small burst of rain, but dry again within 10 mins, so the pots are all parched. OH ordered an insane amount (over 400!! ) plants from group0n at the weekend - that's not going to be fun when they arrive! I did say that he has to help with that - that's way too many for me to get done! Should bring a burst of colour into the garden though

Hmmm... money news - nothing to report, really. Small fleebay sales - all going towards a lump payment on OH's car finance. Should hopefully make another £1k OP on BTL in June. Need to sort student finance for DD out - but need to do it on 2016/17's income, not 2015/16's, as we had a more than 15% drop where OH didn't have a contract, so want to make sure DD can get as much as possible. She has her accom for next year sorted now - a little flat which was totally renovated only a year ago, so the current student tenants in there are the first ones - hopefully everything in there should then still be in reasonable order! We will need to buy a couple of items for it and she and flatmate need to sort out the bills etc - they are responsible for it from 1st July, which is a bit of a pain, as their course doesn't start again until almost Oct, so rent and bills are needed for 3 empty months - but that seems to be fairly standard, unfortunately. Thankfully she's actually quite sensible with her money!

Right - need to go for a walk - my fitbit's told me I've not been active enough this hour!

We're on that slow crawl of the last few days before pay day.... current accounts are skint and I refuse to transfer money over so am not spending until the end of the week, hopefully (I have £20 in my purse if we need top up shopping, such as milk) - am really looking at ploughing money into OH's car loan and then the BTL (OH is looking at having a 'nice' holiday - not as expensive as America last year, but still a few £000 - we need to meet somewhere in the middle! )

Boys all went back to school yesterday. DD is still here until Sunday - at which point she will no doubt be taking back half the contents of the freezer and pantry to uni!

OH is now officially half way through the contract - yeay! And May yields 2 long bank holiday weekends and a day off on May 4th, as the smalls' school is closed for the local elections, so we are off to Legoland, courtesy of our Tesc0 CC vouchers We aren't telling the smalls until that morning

Decluttering has continued over the hols - lots has left via the bin/ recycling/ CS/ fleabay and more has been priced up for the next NNS (July) - some real space has been emerging in areas, which is great to see. I have a huge pile of toys to sort out this week and next for fleabay. Any unsold will then go to NNS, but I suspect *most* should sell - which the children will like, as they can then replenish their money boxes with funds for more toys, or whatever (usually Leg0 for the smalls, PS4 games for DS1 - and going out clubbing for DD )

Bank Holiday weekend number one is here - yeay!! Was a very long day yesterday after a horrendous night's sleep and then invigilating at both schools (art, drama & DT - not the most riveting - Art is nice later in the exam but I had the first couple of hours where they were gridding up and starting to put light pencil lines on, so not much to see.

Anyway, OH is home for a long weekend and DD is going back to uni tomorrow - revision and exam time, so am sending her back with lots of easy food and treats

So far today has been laundry and shopping and 2 loaves of bread are now on their final prove. OH has taken DS3 to his swimming lesson and is now on the way back after having collected DD from a sleepover in the next town. Thinking a games afternoon may be in order after lunch!

OH's boss has informally asked him about extending his time there. He has said to discuss again closer to the end, as things may change. No-one else is being asked to extend (at this moment in time) - which is a compliment and they are willing for him to work from home a lot more..... and be very flexible when it comes to DS2 starting his new school in Sept and DD going back to uni etc - oh, and for him to have a good break during the SUmmer hols. He actually might do it - if he only has to stay down there 2 nights a week he would stay in a hotel (he currently has a Mon-Fri let @ £695/ mth) - so then his meals are claimable (not the case in s/c accom) and he is at home way more than away. A 3 month extension would mean being able to take the rest of the financial year off and still take decent drawings out from the co and leave a safety net in there.

We'll see closer to the time. I'm not totally convinced - but it's nice to know that there are options

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